Julia Spencer's comment in the last post made me realize that we have the invaluable opportunity to get your input as we're designing the family service. So with that in mind, what are you looking for in a family worship service? Here's the rough draft that we've sketched out thus far:
The first 20 minutes would involve music, dance, sketch comedy, art, puppets, or other forms of experiential worship and would vary from week to week. It's designed to be interactive and enjoyable for parents and children alike. The kids would be dismissed just before the message, which is recorded from the 9:00 Sunday main service and played back on DVD for the family service. Finally, we'd have an offering and response time during which we'd have more live music to respond to the message.
As always, your thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated as we move forward in this Family Worship experiment.
4 comments:
Can I ask why the kids would be dismissed? I would love a service where the kids and I could sit through a service together. That way we could talk about the message together throughout the week. To be honest, watching a DVD presentation of the Sunday morning message doesn't do a whole lot for me. And then what would be the purpose of watching a DVD when the kids are not even in the room? What if the children's pastor or Youth Pastor or whomever really was able to give a family version of the main message. I don't think you have to "dumb" it down, just gear the message to what families are dealing with. Communication, Finances, heartache, etc... Moms and Dads deal with the same things their kids deal with just on a different level. So, a family service would be awesome if it could address the family together. Lift us up, teach us, bond us, and push us out into the world together.
This new venue has the possibility to be great! I am excited over the addition of this service. I'm excited to see what will become of it. I'm excited to see God's hand reach out to the families in this community and teach the family how to be a family.
If you want me to clarify my thoughts, please ask. I'd even be open to meeting about this as well.
great points! the idea is elementary age kids would probably need some age-appropriate learning time. Kids are welcome to sit through the service with their parents, but we wanted to give them an option for something that will engage their short attention spans (grin).
If I'm honest, the DVD thing is an obstacle for me, too. But it's been shown to be effective throughout the country. It's counter-intuitive, but people forget that they're watching a screen and actually enjoy the video venue. How this will fly in Harleysville, PA remains to be seen, but I think we could make it work...maybe we'll call it "iChurch" or "cyber-service"
Thanks Dave. :) I guess I'll have to see the DVD in action to make an informed opinion. I do think that BCCC can make the family venue work with the whole family there for the "sermon" though. And when I envision a family venue, I see it a lot like Encounter in that the family service is separate, but yet together with the church. The topics can follow the main services, but the look and feel of the service and sermon is geared toward the whole family.
This is just my opinion, and I'm just one small voice. The fact that BCCC is opening up this type of venue is awesome and I'll pray that it will bless many families because of it.
The recorded DVD msg is also an issue with me. Quite frankly, the live msg is starting to even be an issue with me. Reason being is that I can sit by myself, with my iPod and listen to a message at any time I wish. More and more I am feeling uneasy about spending the little time I have each week, with my brothers and sisters at Branch just sitting and listening to a lecture style msg. Whatever way it looks like I would love to see something replace the lecture style teaching so that we can interact with each other during that time. Maybe through a message but in a different delivery. Maybe something like the hybrid of the traditional lecture message and the Q&A format that has been so successful @ Encounter. I agree it would be great to have the kids in there. I think, if we don't challenge their attention spans they will continue to have short attention spans. I think Julia is correct in saying that there is a way to make the msg applicable to the whole family and give us something to talk together about during the week.
What about teens? Isn't Exit31 going on then?
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